Publications

25 Jun 2007
Research & Ideas

HBS Cases: Beauty Entrepreneur Madam Walker

Bundles, one of Walker's descendants who authored the biography On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker, told MBA students at Harvard that her great-great-grandmother wanted to help women look and feel better.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Beauty & Cosmetics

07 May 2007
Research & Ideas

Rediscovering Schumpeter: The Power of Capitalism

lightly. Q: Schumpeter was a fascinating personality—a womanizer, incredible intellect, great teacher. And how many prominent economists have provoked a sword fight with a librarian? But at the same time, as your biography illustrates,... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Education

24 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

Boards and Corporate Governance: A Balanced Scorecard Approach

and as part of succession planning. Biographies Robert S. Kaplan is the Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development at Harvard Business School, and is a cofounder and chairman of Balanced Scorecard Collaborative, Inc. (BSCol). Prior... View Details

Keywords: Re: Robert S. Kaplan & Krishna G. Palepu

30 Jun 2021
In Practice

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2021

What’s on HBS faculty members’ reading list for summer 2021? Which books are most meaningful to them and why? Below, faculty share their top picks, ranging from biographies and memoirs to their colleagues’ latest works. Julia Austin:... View Details

Keywords: by Kathryn Haviland

20 Oct 2003
Research & Ideas

Gaps in the Historical Record: Development of the Electronics Industry

Margaret Graham's RCA and the Radio Disc, a biography of David Sarnoff by an RCA executive, and a journalistic account of Sony's expansion. Precisely because of the tiny number of players involved, their story provides a real-life... View Details

Keywords: by Alfred D. Chandler Jr.; Consumer Products

May 2018
Article

Linda Babcock: Go-getter and Do-gooder

By: Max Bazerman, Iris Bohnet, Hannah Riley-Bowles and George Loewenstein

In this tribute to the 2007 recipient of the Jeffrey Z. Rubin Theory‐To‐Practice Award from the International Association for Conflict Management (IACM), we celebrate Linda Babcock's contributions to diverse lines of research, her tireless and effective efforts to put... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Biography; Research; Negotiation; Leadership; Practice

26 Jan 2020
Research & Ideas

Clayton M. Christensen, Acclaimed Author and Teacher, Dies At 67

best selves that permeated every aspect of his life. His loss will be felt deeply by many in our community and his legacy will be long-lasting.” See complete biography on the Harvard Business School website here. View Details

Article

Clogs to Clogs in Three Generations? Explaining Entrepreneurial Performance in Britain Since 1850

By: Tom Nicholas

Research into culture and entrepreneurship in Britain has been dominated by casual empiricism. This article shows the benefits of using a new method. Lifetime wealth accumulation is specified as a measure of entrepreneurial performance, and applied to data collected... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Performance Evaluation; Biography; Culture; Education; Wealth; Research; Great Britain

Read Now

July 2020 (Revised September 2021)
Case

Mr. Five Percent: Calouste Gulbenkian and the Origins of Global Oil

By: Geoffrey Jones and Yazeed Al-Rashed

This case describes the business career of Calouste Gulbenkian, a skilled intermediary who was able to secure 5 percent of a vast oil concession covering much of the Middle East that was signed in 1928. Gulbenkian was an ethnic Armenian born in the Ottoman Empire,... View Details

Keywords: Oil; Globalization; Energy Sources; History; Biography; Energy Industry; Turkey; Central Asia; Middle East

Educators

December 1974 (Revised May 1999)
Case

Andrew Carnegie

Concerns the life and wealth of Andrew Carnegie. View Details

Keywords: Wealth; Personal Development and Career; Biography

November 2005 (Revised August 2006)
Case

John Whitehead: A Life in Leadership

By: William W. George and Andrew N. McLean

In 2005, John C. Whitehead, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. (LMDC), confronts the collapse of a delicate agreement among business, government, and public interests in rebuilding on the World Trade Center site. Provides information on the leadership... View Details

Keywords: Education; Construction; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Biography; Leadership; Leadership Development; Agreements and Arrangements; Nonprofit Organizations

Educators

May 2004 (Revised June 2004)
Case

Brief Biographical Note on P. Roy Vagelos

By: Nitin Nohria and Bridget Gurtler

Provides background biographical information on P. Roy Vagelos, chief executive officer of Merck Pharmaceuticals. Teaching Purpose: To chart the development of a leader in the pharmaceutical industry. View Details

Keywords: Biography; Teaching; Leadership Development; Mission and Purpose; Personal Development and Career; Ethics; Pharmaceutical Industry

02 Jul 2014
What Do You Think?

Are Today’s Business Heroes Challenging Our Ideas About Leadership?

associated with large, well-established organizations that I studied and admired in graduate school, the kind that Collins and Jerry Porras wrote about as being "built to last." Then I read biographies of today's business... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

12 Nov 2008
Research & Ideas

The Marketing of a President

positive and unruffled demeanor, and his compelling biography attracted the attention and empathy of voters. Second, Obama converted this empathy into tangible support. More citizens volunteered time and money to help the Obama campaign... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

04 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter

found, given, and transmitted from the past." Thomas Carlyle, the Scottish writer who named economics "the dismal science," famously declared for the other side: "The History of the world is but the Biography of great men." Our instincts... View Details

25 Jan 2011
First Look

First Look: Jan. 25

PublicationsThe Strategic Use of Brand Biographies Authors:Jill Avery, Neeru Paharia, Anat Keinan, and Juliet Schor Publication:Research in Consumer Behavior (forthcoming) Abstract We introduce the concept of a brand View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Jul 2020
Book

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2020

recommend Ron Chernow’s Grant, a biography of Ulysses S. Grant. Other than as the answer to the 1950s Groucho Marx question, “Who was buried in Grant’s tomb?”, I had not known much about this fascinating person. He was a terrible judge of... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

March 2005 (Revised April 2007)
Case

Oprah!

By: William W. George and Andrew N. McLean

Oprah Winfrey believed in sharing the experiences that shaped her development and enabled her to become the wealthiest women in the entertainment industry and first African American billionaire. Traces her childhood and entertainment career, drawing connections in... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Wealth; Leadership; Personal Development and Career; Gender; Biography; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

Educators

2009
Book

Let Me Explain: Eugene G. Fubini's Life in Defense of America

By: David G. Fubini

There is no necessary relationship between fame and power, and great influence is often wielded in willful obscurity. So it was with the irascible, indomitable Eugene Fubini. A physics prodigy who fled Italy when the fascists came to power, his searing intelligence and... View Details

Keywords: Biography; Personal Development and Career; National Security; United States